A Strange Coronation

Biblical Text: Luke 23:27-43

This was the Last Sunday of the Church Year, often called Christ the King Sunday. The sermon elaborates a little more on that source. But the three year cycle of reading in the year of Luke throws an oddity. The Gospel reading is the Via Dolorosa and Crucifixion. Why on Christ the King would we get this? The answer is that this is the coronation walk of the Universal King. The cross is the throne of the King in this world. The posting above the cross – “This is the King of the Jews” – INRI (iesus nazarenus rex iudaeorum in Latin, Pilate’s judgement, Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews) – is the divine irony. It is the sentence that the world gave; it is also the truth.

And on this walk and enthronement the King grants alms and blessings and benedictions. We also see the division, the judgement as it is actually carried out. For it is at the foot of the cross that the judgement takes place. Are we mockers? Or are we beggars?

That’s a bit of the sermon. Give it a listen for the elaboration.

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Christ the King

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20 NLT)

The Epistle lesson for the Last Sunday of the Church Year, sometimes known as Christ the King Sunday, focuses first on the cosmic and majestic nature of Christ: image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, by him all things were created, for him all things, head of the body the church, firstborn from the dead. Paul has a long list of sobriquets he applies to Jesus like any king with all his titles and honors spelled out. We had our share of funerals recently. Thinking about this passage and those funerals brought to mind the funeral of Otto von Habsburg, that last of the Archdukes. The Habsburg family used to rule almost all of Europe, everything except England and France. The family crypt is in Vienna, Austria, but Otto would be the last interred. The reason it was brought to mind is that the procession arrives at the crypt and announces who it is with all his titles and honorifics. And the monks deny him entry. They scale it down and he is still denied entry. Eventually they just say “Otto, a child of God” and the monks open the door. Death is no respecter of person. Paul eventually stops with all the honorifics and just scales it down. He scales it all down to three things.

First, “the fullness of God was pleased to live.” That is the mystery of the incarnation. The God whom all those titles apply to became a man. He became a specific man – Jesus of Nazareth. He did not disperse himself as a divine drop living in every man which is roughly the start of every other religion. The eternal God became one man, born of the virgin Mary. And that man was not by human standards a King, although he was descended from King David. And that man was not mired in sin, although he was a descendant of Adam. Neither was he just an avatar of God soon to be discarded, but Jesus is “the assumption of the humanity into God (Athanasian Creed).” He became the second Adam, the second universal man.

And what was the immediate purpose of this incarnation? Why did God go to such great lengths? Paul’s second summary, “God reconciled everything to himself.” The dictionaries will tie the word for reconciliation together with the third summary of word peace. Reconciliation is the process, peace is the state. Reconciliation is how things were put right. And God didn’t just reconcile man. He didn’t just reconcile a part of his creation. God reconciled in Christ everything. By God the King of creation entering into the creation he made a way for all creation to enter eternity. That way – the process – was by means of the blood of the cross. Satan, the King of this old world, attempted to claim that which was not his. And he lost his Kingdom. He lost his claim on all humanity. Because we are reconciled to God by the blood. We can appeal in faith to the blood and all is made right.

Which brings us to the ultimate purpose. Through the incarnation and the reconciliation what it brought about? Peace. The English word peace has basically come to mean “not war.” Which is too limited a view of peace. The old line about the Roman army is that they conquered and salted the land and called it peace. You can call something devoid of life peace, but it is not the peace of God. It is not the peace that passes understanding. The peace talked about here might be better thought of as cosmic wholeness. Everything is at harmony with everything else. The medieval concept of the music of the spheres is a notion of peace. Everything is singing as the appointed rounds are done. Such moments of peace are few and far between in this world. We rarely know what we are to do. We often grumble while doing it. And what gets done is often not in harmony with our neighbor but at odds. Cold Wars abound. But the reconciliation of Jesus – the blood of the cross – was done to bring peace.

It’s my favorite Christmas verse. All idols then shall perish/and Satan’s lying cease/And Christ shall raise his scepter/decreeing endless peace. A worthy work of a King

Ascension Troubles

It was last Thursday (or today if you are reading this electronically). What was Thursday? Ascension Day. It is something of the forgotten feast day of the Life of Christ. Why is that? The easy answer is that it is on a Thursday – 40 days after Easter. And while Epiphany can be forced by a Pastor as a nice late ending to the Christmas season. It doesn’t hurt that everyone loves the story of the Wise Men and the star connected to Epiphany. And Holy Week seems appropriate piety. By the time you get to 40 days after Easter, Summer is starting. It is one thing to be in church when it is cold and dark. It is another thing to sacrifice sun and good weather. Less joking, more serious, Ascension I think hits on all the modern church’s hangups.

What do I mean by that? Well, among respectable educated folk, there is a tendency to spiritualize the more miraculous events of the life of Jesus. Not that the bible allows this, it is just that we are all educated as de facto materialists (i.e. there is nothing but matter). So anything that borders on the woo-woo must be a metaphor. The first step in much of mainline Protestantism’s losing the faith was spiritualizing Easter. The resurrection is a metaphor for new beginnings. If it’s just a metaphor, to hell with it. I want to thrust my hand into the side with Thomas.

Because then I know that my six foot slumber is temporary. If it’s a metaphor, there is no new beginning from that, unless you count being mulch a new beginning. What does Ascension say? That Jesus Christ was bodily taken up into heaven (Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:6-11, Matthew 28:16-20). And that in heaven he has been seated at the right hand of God the Father (Creed, Revelation 4-5). Ascension says that Jesus Christ is reigning right now. And that is not some metaphor. The King is on his throne. And it is not some King in Parliament scheme. “The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders and every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them fell down and worshipped (Revelation 5:13-14).” This King is the judge of the quick and the dead. Good luck turning that into a metaphor.

The second reason is what the Royal decree of Ascencion Day is – evangelism. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).” Luke’s version is “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the Ends of the Earth (Acts 1:8).” Having been clothed with power from on high, the Holy Spirit, the disciples are to make more disciples. Again, really hard to make a metaphor. That’s a concrete mission. The Gospel of John doesn’t have an explicit Ascension story, but it has an implied one that explains it a bit further. From John 16:7-8, “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement.” Ascension Day, for it’s woo-woo happening, is very concrete. It is about sin and righteousness and judgement.

Ascension Day is this forgotten day, probably because we don’t always like the message. Jesus reigns. And He has given us a Royal quest. It is not the myth of Camelot or some far away story, but it has come very close to you. That Helper abides in you. Do we say Christ is Lord? And if so, do we mean it…by following his commandments? By being his witnesses? It is an uneasy message in these later days.

Christ the King

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Biblical Text: Mark 13:14-23, 24-37

The day on the church Calendar is the last Sunday of the Church Year, sometimes called Christ the King. The sermon completes our reading through Jesus’ last things sermon from Mark 13. You might call it the distinction between the end of a world, a time of tribulation, and the end of the world, the deliverance of Christ the King. The first of those we should be able to recognize by the “sign of the fig tree.” The last of those, we do not know, but we await that day. For that day is the day the Kingdom comes in its fullness. The Day of our deliverance.

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Christ the King whose Throne is the Cross

Biblical Text: Luke 23:27-43
Full Draft of Sermon

The last Sunday of the Church year (today) is often called Christ the King Sunday. The appointed reading from Luke is the crucifixion. I usually dodge preaching directly on this text. For those who have been around Holy Week at St. Mark’s, Good Friday has been our collective reading of the passion text. We let the gospel preach itself in our midst. If you can’t be moved by the text itself…what am I going to say. I couldn’t dodge it today, but today compared to Good Friday the purpose is slightly different. Good Friday is more about the lens of atonement – the cross as what buys our salvation. Christ the King is about the revelation of the God. When we say Jesus is Lord, what kind of King or Lord do we have. It is that word – King – that the text can tell us about. “There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews’”. It is here, at the place of the skull, we are to see most clearly, to learn the type of King we have.

This sermon looks at the text and application to our knowledge and lives through looking at three pictures that are concluded by memorable phrases of the gospel.
1) For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry.
2) The mocking contrasted with the criminal’s – “remember me when you come into your kingdom”.
3) And Jesus’ words from the cross – “today, you will be with me in paradise.”
So, what what this sermon does is invite you to ponder three pictures or three phrases.

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Christ the King – one rule, not multiple

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Text: Luke 23:27-43

Christ the King is the last Sunday of the church year. This coming Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent or the church’s new year. The emphasis of Christ the King is the pretty simple – the ascended Christ is Lord of All – hidden now, revealed at times, revealed for all times on the last day. The lectionary specified the crucifixion reading from Luke, which is different. The Matthew (Year A) and Mark (Year B) readings are the sheep and the goats and the the lesson of the fig tree. Year C with Luke focuses on the thief on the cross. Do you see the world aligned with the priests, and soldiers and skeptical thief? Or do you see it from the position of the other thief? Is the cross just a scandalous death, or is it a coronation. Is the one on it, The King of the Jews?

If you side with the thief in paradise – it has all kinds of implications. The world today really wants us to separate ourselves into separate little fiefdoms – this is my private life, this is my public life, this is my work life, this is my life life, this is my financial life, and this is my spiritual life. And the world wants us to act differently in each – to act as if they are all disconnected, as if we could isolate things in one life from things in another. That path just leads to broken selves. Harry Potter’s Voldemort is a great example. He divides himself into multiple horcruxes. It allows him to go on living, but he misses the entire point of being human, in fact in that very act he gives up his humanity.

Instead, God made us Body and Spirit. He made us whole and wants us healed and restored. Restored under the one rule of Christ the King – coronated on a cross. If Christ is King over the heights of heaven and the depths of the pit, then there is nothing mundane or secular. Whether that is money or holiday celebrations or the clothes we wear, it has all been redeemed by the divine. And how we use it, how we live, reflects our king. Do we live as if we have split ourselves – barely human? Or do we live as if Jesus, true man also true God is one Christ – King?